International Top Five - Return of the Night

February 14th, 2007

The Pursuit Of Happyness's reign on top of the international charts was short lived as Night at the Museum reclaimed the crown. Over the weekend the film pulled in $14.01 million on 4559 screens in 43 markets for a total of $231.50 million so far. Topping this week's markets was France where the film opened in first place with $4.3 million on 676 screens while it fell just 33% during its second weekend in Italy adding $2.45 million on 463 screens for a total of $9.51 million. Even if the film had no further markets to open in, $250 million internationally and $500 million worldwide would be virtual guarantees. However, it has yet to open in Japan as well as midlevel markets like Belgium and the Netherlands.

The Blood Diamond rose to second place thanks to a nearly flat weekend. The film dipped just 3% to $13.12 million on 3763 screens in 58 markets for a total of $63.22 million. It managed first place in Spain with $2.33 million on 351 screens while settling for second place in Mexico with $1.01 million on 350. The film has already made more internationally than it did domestically and should top $100 million before too long, even with very few markets left to open in.

The Pursuit Of Happyness may have fallen from first to third, but with less than $3 million separating the top four, this is not a serious decline. Over the weekend the film added $12.06 million on 3086 screens in 43 markets for a total of $92.01 million and by this time next week it will have become Will Smith's fourth film in a row to reach that milestone internationally, and the tenth film in total. The weekend the film opened in nearly two-dozen markets, however, the largest of these was Belgium where it finished first with $332,000 on 28 screens. It's biggest market overall was Japan where it added $1.99 million on 272 screens for a three-week total of $13.09 million.

The first new film of the week was Hannibal Rising, which earned almost as much internationally as it did domestically. $11.09 million on 1865 screens in 10 markets. This included a first place debut in Australia and a second place debut in Italy; however, while Australia had a better ranking, it's $618,000 on 131 screens was much weaker than Italy's $2.86 million on 364 screens. The film also opened in the U.K. but had to settle for fourth place with $2.0 million on 340 screens, which is weaker that its opening here, but not terribly so.

Rocky Balboa rose by 39% this weekend but remained in fifth place with $7.62 million on 2498 screens in 19 markets for a total of $57.92 million. The film's biggest market was Germany where it opened in first place with $3.54 million on 743 screens, which is a better opening than it managed here taking into account the relative size of the two markets.